January 1945, Paris is liberated. Christiane, an eccentric and acutely myopic Parisian waits at Gare Du Nord for a ticket to England to be reunited with her fiancé. Whilst she waits, this gloriously irrepressible Mademoiselle recounts the extraordinary story of her love affair with Cyril, a tongue-tied teacher from Staffordshire. From a chance encounter at Cheadle tennis club, their story takes us on to cosmopolitan 1930s Paris before war interrupts their unlikely romance. A fond, comical tender, comical and ultimately poignant portrait of one woman’s experience of love and war.
In 2002, Caroline’s French grandmother, Christiane, moved into sheltered housing. Amongst a lifetime of clutter, Caroline found a shoebox containing wartime letters. She has pieced together this story from Christiane’s letters and from their conversations about her youth, her love affair with Cyril Horton and her memories of occupied France.
